Face, Race, and Performance: Arousal by Face and Identity Transformation

Abstract

This chapter discusses musical theatre, focus on face and race to represent and mimic reality through performance. Historically trace from Ministry Show, Miss Saigon dispute between artistic vs. authentic, to Asian American Playwright David Henry Hwang’s Yellow Face on Asian face, to the contemporary musicals Cats, The Lion King, War Paint, and East Asian performance Jekyll & Hyde & So On. Through makeup in Cats and masks in The Lion King, animality and humanity can be melted and combined via theatricality. Cosmetic history can be exemplified by the two business superwomen’s rival story in War Paint. In Jekyll & Hyde & So On, Japanese Director Koki Mitani and his Japanese cast transform Robert Louis Stevenson’s western tragic thriller novel to be a comedy intercultural performance.